Anatoly Pepelyaev. Russian Army in the Great War: Project File: Pepelyaev Anatoly Nikolaevich

The famous White Guard military leader Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev was born in 1891 in eastern Russia in the city of Tomsk into a noble family. His father, Nikolai, was a lieutenant general tsarist army, and Claudius’s mother is the daughter of a merchant. Anatoly followed in his father’s footsteps and successfully graduated from the cadet corps in the city of Omsk in 1908, then, having moved to, and having undergone training at the Pavlovsk Military School, received the rank of second lieutenant, he was sent to serve in hometown Tomsk to the Siberian Rifle Regiment.

When it began, Anatoly Nikolaevich was already serving with the rank of lieutenant and commanded cavalry reconnaissance in his regiment. He very successfully participated in military operations at Prasnysh and Soldau and in other operations, was recognized for his services with numerous awards and received another military rank captain. And even despite the revolutionary sentiments brewing in the ranks of the soldiers caused by the February events in Russia, Pepelyaev managed to keep his regiment in a cohesive and combat-ready state. Anatoly Nikolaevich enjoyed great trust and respect among the military personnel, as evidenced by his election by the meeting of soldiers' deputies as battalion commander. And when it became completely useless to stay at the front after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace, Pepelyaev moved to his homeland in Tomsk in 1918 and there he was elected chief of staff of a secret officer organization created to counter Bolshevism.

The organization led by Pepelyaev actively supported the uprising in Novonikolaevsk in May 1918 and helped establish the power of Volodarsky’s “Siberian Government” in Tomsk. By order new government Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev created the 1st Rifle Corps and moved further east to fight the Bolsheviks. During the period from June to August 1918, thanks to the successful military operations carried out by Pepelyaev with his corps, Krasnoyarsk, Verkhneudinsk and Chita were taken, for which he received the rank of colonel and was awarded the 3rd degree. In October, Pepelyaev, together with his corps, moved to the Urals already with the rank of major general. This rank is quite rare for a 27-year-old officer. November passes in successful battles against the Red Army, during which Kolchak was brought to power.

Omsk and Perm were already under the control of the White Guard troops, and during the operation in Perm, Anatoly Nikolaevich captured almost 20 thousand Red Army soldiers and then generously sent them home. In the spring of 1919, a massive offensive of all Kolchak’s troops would begin in westward, Pepelyaev already at that time commanded the Northern Group of the Siberian Army and stubbornly advanced with fierce battles to Vyatka, despite the fact that many white corps were crushed by the enemy. Pepelyaev’s northern group could not be stopped until the summer of 1919, but still, in the end, he had to retreat, the forces were very unequal. Even the reorganization of the troops carried out did not help; the white army continued to move further and further to the east. Pepelyaev and the 1st Army still managed to hold the Siberian cities for some time. But the conflict that occurred with Kolchak, Pepelyaev’s accusation of the big military commanders for the weak-willed surrender of the city of Omsk, led to disagreements in the ranks of the White Army. And even the subsequent reconciliation did not help. Pepelyaev's army was defeated by the Bolsheviks, and he and his family fled along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Then, already at the beginning of 1920, there was participation in the partisan detachments of Ataman Semenov, and then emigration to the Country rising sun with my family.

Life in Japan forced Pepelyaev to take up peaceful affairs; he had to live somehow and had to work as a loader, fisherman, and carpenter. But the thought of fighting against the Bolsheviks still haunted him, and in 1922 Pepelyaev arrived in Vladivostok to help form the rebel troops. At the beginning of September, Pepelyaev and his detachment set out to conquer Yakutia. The advance was quite successful; the village of Nelkan was captured, which it was decided to make the main springboard for the further operation to capture Yakutsk. And as a result, a large united army of white partisans led by Pepelyaev and Vishnevsky. Artemyeva and Rakitina headed to Yakutsk. Thus, in March 1923, the last offensive of the White Guards in the Civil War began, which, after unequal resistance, was stopped by the Red detachments and Pepelyaev eventually had to surrender in June along with the remnants of the White partisan detachments.

The petition sent by Pepelyaev to Kalinin helped reduce the court's sentence from the death penalty to 10 years in prison. He spent two years in solitary confinement, then worked, and after the end of his term, instead of being released, he was transferred to Butyrka, where, after long grueling interrogations, he was finally released in June 1936, but was forcibly settled in. Already in August 1937, he was again taken into custody, suspected of counter-revolution, and, ultimately, on January 14, 1938, Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev was shot. And in 1989 he was rehabilitated by the Novosibirsk prosecutor's office.

The biography of General Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev still attracts the attention of researchers and enthusiasts studying Russian history. One of the numerous but striking episodes in the string of nightmares that any civil war always brings with it is the famous Yakut campaign of General Pepelyaev. The mutiny showed the courage and tragedy of the people of the former Great Russian Empire, becoming a formidable reminder to descendants of what the collapse and split of society leads to in favor of various political forces, ready to prove their right to power even with weapons in their hands.

Youth and development of the Russian officer Pepelyaev

The personality and biography of General Pepelyaev, unfortunately, are little known to a wide circle persons He was undeservedly forgotten and tried not to be mentioned in Soviet times. But history exists not only to remember, but also to learn lessons.

Born into the family of a Russian officer, the boy knew from childhood that he would devote his life to serving the Fatherland. He was born in Tomsk on July 15, 1891. The family was large: two sisters and five brothers. The father, Lieutenant General Nikolai Pepelyaev, sent his son to study. Teachers found Anatoly kind, quick-tempered, proud, stubborn, but truthful. There have been cases of insolence towards teachers. But it was clear from everything that the boy liked his cadetship. However, all sons, excluding the eldest, received an excellent military education.

The year 1908 came and Anatoly entered the Pavlovsk Military School in St. Petersburg. He was completely absorbed in his studies: tactics, military history, foreign languages, chemistry, military topography- this is not the entire list of disciplines studied. At school, he began to take his studies more seriously, but discipline was still lame.

The future general managed to receive 16 penalties in two years. Judging by the description left by the teachers, it turns out that cadet Pepelyaev very easily fell under the influence of his comrades who were notorious. At the same time, the young man handled small arms well and was physically developed and strong, and his nature required vigorous activity.

Even with discipline flaws, he managed to graduate from college with the rank of second lieutenant. That is, he was a 1st class graduate. And for this, the necessary condition was to score at least 8 points out of 10 possible in military disciplines, and to get at least 10 points in knowledge of combat service. Studying at the school took 2 years and the young second lieutenant Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev returned to his native Tomsk in triumph in 1910.

Beginning of a military career

He was sent to serve in a machine gun team. This company-level unit in the tsarist army consisted of 99 people, there was a commander and 3 chief officers. Moreover, one of them was older, and two were younger. It was one of these junior chief officers that Second Lieutenant Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev began his career.

Such a unit was armed with 9 machine guns and belonged in whole or in part to companies or battalions. That's why great value focused on interaction issues. Two years after the start of his service as part of the 42nd Siberian Rifle Regiment, Second Lieutenant Pepelyaev married Nina Ivanovna Gavronskaya. But happiness was prevented by the impending World War I.

Shortly before the start of this monstrous tragedy, Pepelyaev received a promotion to the rank of lieutenant and new position- head of the regiment reconnaissance team. Three weeks after the declaration of war, his regiment was sent to the Northwestern Front.

Pepelyaev in the First World War

The scouts under the command of Lieutenant Pepelyaev showed themselves already in the first months of their arrival at the front. Several successful raids were carried out in the area of ​​the town of Graevo, the town of Markrabovo. For this he was awarded 4th, 3rd and 2nd degrees, 3rd degrees. The scouts were lucky and they were proud of their commander. But 1915 was rich in events that tested the strength, power and fortitude of the Russian tsarist army. It's about about the six-day Battle of Prasnysh.

On July 30, 1915, German troops advanced, having almost twofold superiority in the sector of the front defended by the Siberians. The 11th Siberian Rifle Division, in which Lieutenant Pepelyaev served, numbered 14,500 bayonets. By evening, no more than 5,000 combat-ready fighters remained.

The soldiers, showing miracles of courage, felt the force of the main blow of the Germans, but did not flinch and remained faithful to the oath and military duty to the end. They had to retreat, but the plan of the fascist command was thwarted: they failed to encircle the Russian group in Poland.

Fate protected the future Major General Pepelyaev from a bayonet and a bullet, but did not save him from a shrapnel. After the operation, he was eager to fight. Pepelyaev categorically rejected all persuasions about evacuation. He felt how his soldiers and comrades needed him. And abandoning everyone because of a “slight” injury, in his opinion, is not possible for the honor of a Russian officer.

The hardships and hardships of the First World War. The beginning of the collapse of the army

Not having time to properly recover from his wound, the lieutenant rushes into battle again, and the command promotes him to the rank of staff captain. He continues to command his Siberian scouts and show miracles of heroism.

On September 18, 1915, a dangerous situation arose in a battle near the village of Borovaya. Pepelyaev's detachment guarded the right flank and conducted reconnaissance of the combat area of ​​the 11th Siberian Rifle Division. The Germans, having a fourfold superiority, came almost close to the positions of our troops, and if they had captured them, they would have created extremely unpleasant conditions for the defense of an entire division. There was no time left to think. The staff captain personally led the counterattack of his scouts, and the Siberians made no mistake. They not only threw back the enemy who had burst in, but also regained their positions. In this battle, over a hundred Germans were killed, and they themselves lost two soldiers.

One can continue to list no less glorious episodes in the biography of General Pepelyaev, but alarming trends have already been outlined in Russian army. People began to slowly but surely get tired of the military confusion and the meaninglessness of what was happening. Only Pepelyaev’s reconnaissance detachment did not have time for sadness and general despondency. The series of events in that terrible meat grinder was too vivid. But the command appreciated the brave officer’s rich combat experience and sent him to a front-line school.

The losses of the Russian army were colossal. Society increasingly asked questions about the advisability of continuing such a war. To this we can add the agitation that the Bolsheviks successfully launched at the fronts. All these and many other reasons caused confusion and vacillation, giving rise to the question in the soul of a simple Russian soldier: “Why should I die?”

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is a slap in the face for the Russian soldier

According to the memoirs of Major General Pepelyaev, he met the revolution at the front. The collapse of the army and the loss of its combat effectiveness were influenced by many factors. Along with this, everything old was destroyed, and something new - incomprehensible - appeared. For example, the election of commanders, democratization in the armed forces. How this affected the power of the army is not worth explaining. In the military environment, not without reason, the incompetent Nicholas II and his government were considered guilty of what was happening, so many greeted the February Revolution and the Tsar’s abdication of the throne with absolutely calm.

Russian patriots still hoped for victory, but every day this hope faded. The October Revolution and the signed separate Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty - the ground went away from under our feet. Everything that Russian patriots believed in was crumbling before our eyes. Pepelyaev could not change the situation, but he also did not intend to put up with it. He needed time to think about everything carefully. And he headed to his native Tomsk.

The fight against the Bolsheviks as a cure for depression

Returning from the war, Pepelyaev did not forgive the Bolsheviks for their treacherous stab in the back. He, like many White Guards, dreamed of revenge. Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev, a general in the White Army, considered himself, judging by his memoirs, a “populist.” The contradictions that arose in the society of the former Russian Empire could not be resolved peacefully.

A bloody fratricidal war loomed ahead, eclipsing even the First World War in its cruelty and stupidity. Western states condemned a separate peace and were happy to support the rebellious white movement for the sake of fat profits.

On May 31, 1918, his hometown was cleared of the Bolsheviks. Now Pepelyaev and his associates could come out of hiding and form their own corps to repel the “red plague,” which is what this group did. The Central Siberian Corps was formed, and the results were not long in coming. The liberation of Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and Verkhneudinsk came one after another. His military career continued its meteoric rise. He is awarded the rank of major general.

Anatoly Pepelyaev, general of the “white” movement, received his rank at the age of 27. But for all his talents and phenomenal luck, he had some peculiarities in behavior that alarmed experienced military men. On principle he refused to wear shoulder straps, believing that power should go to the peasants and villages. He not only despised the old regime, but also hated it fiercely, ready to prevent its return even with arms in hand.

His views and some actions indicate, rather, exaltation and immaturity of the personality. He was proud that he had never given an order to be executed. But this did not mean that terror did not gain momentum on both sides. Being in his illusory world, he refused to understand that civil war is a qualitative new level confrontation. Young General A.N. Pepelyaev firmly believed in his ideals, and this would later play a cruel joke on him and on those who went with him on the famous Yakut campaign. As a soldier, he was never able to accept and come to terms with the barbaric inhuman cruelty that war brings.

Capture of Perm

General Pepelyaev and his troops arrived in the Urals. They rushed to Perm, but the 3rd Army of the Red Army opposed them in front. It cannot be said that the situation was stable for the Reds. There were problems with supplies and the morale of the soldiers. In addition, a significant number of people who sympathized with the “white” movement served in the ranks of the Bolsheviks. Another significant factor influencing the course of the overall battle was that the planning of operations was spontaneous, and the level of training of officers left much to be desired.

“White” General Pepelyaev and his troops differed favorably from their opponents: they were better prepared and had excellent combat experience. In addition, they had agents at the headquarters of the 3rd Army. General Pepelyaev recognized Kolchak's leadership and acted in accordance with his orders.

The assault on the city began on December 24, 1918, in 30-degree frost. The Reds' resistance was crushed within a day. The remaining Red Army soldiers in a hurry crossed the Kama River. The film tells about the events of those troubled years. It describes the Civil War, the capture of Perm and General Pepelyaev. The film is released in cinemas under the name "Contribution".

Unsuccessful trip to Vyatka

Perm was taken, but it was necessary to continue the offensive, and General Pepelyaev continued his march to the west. The frosts intensified and progress stalled. The offensive continued only in March. He stubbornly advanced towards Vyatka.

All other commanders of the “white” movement were much less lucky: their attempts to attack were repulsed by the Red Army, and even a situation arose that threatened Kolchak’s entire group. Their retreat was not organized and looked more like a flight.

The army of Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev covered the retreat of Kapel and Voitsekhovsky. Despite heroic efforts, the end was inevitable. His army was completely destroyed, and the general himself fell ill with typhus. But fate wanted him to survive. He was already a different person: he was disillusioned with the “white” movement, and he was clearly not on the same path with the “reds,” so he decided to emigrate.

Harbin. Life in exile

Former general Anatoly Pepelyaev courageously faced all the hardships and hardships in a foreign land. He mastered the profession of carpenter and fisherman. He did other odd jobs. It was necessary to learn to live without war and become a breadwinner. And he succeeded. He was an active person and therefore soon founded an artel of loaders and carpenters.

But the past did not want to let him go. The unconquered from Kolchak's defeated army constantly turned to him for help. Everyone dreamed of returning to their native Russia. General Anatoly Pepelyaev himself dreamed of this, otherwise he could explain that he allowed himself to be persuaded again into an obvious adventure.

There was a trip to Yakutia to support the rebels. How to explain such a decision - great topic for numerous disputes and disputes. And funding was found for this obviously crazy idea. The businessmen quickly realized that it would be possible to organize a clearly uncontrolled fur trade there and, after weighing all the risks, reluctantly allocated funds. General A.N. Pepelyaev was ready to support 750 people. With 2 machine guns and about 10,000 hand guns, the detachment was ready to move into the inhospitable wastelands of Yakutia.

Yakut campaign of General Pepelyaev

At the beginning of September 1922, soldiers of the Siberian Volunteer Squad landed in Okhotsk and Ayan. The Tungus warmly welcomed him, considering him their saviors, and handed over about 300 reindeer - the main draft force in those places. Despite this, it became obvious to the SDD participants that the campaign was poorly prepared, however, they soon received reinforcements with people and provisions.

By the beginning of 1923, the Red Army had successfully defeated all movements and therefore the fateful decision was made to advance to Yakutsk. Winter road General A.N. Pepelyaeva became serious test for warriors Russian people. But the fighting in those conditions was even more terrible.

The meeting with the Red Army detachment of I. Strode interfered with the plans of the Siberian Volunteer Squad. General Pepelyaev suddenly decided to defeat this unit of Red Army soldiers at any cost. But his charges were doomed. They fought back to Ayan, where they surrendered.

Court. Life in prison

Pepelyaev and Strode were noble people, without meanness in their souls. Strode defended him in every possible way at the trial. The testimony stated that his recent opponent, General Pepelyaev, did not use atrocities or executions. The former “white” general stopped them and Strode considers him a humane person. But the court was inexorable.

General Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev was sent to serve his sentence in the Yaroslavl political prison. Years in solitary confinement, and then he was graciously allowed to write letters to his wife. On July 6, 1936, Pepelyaev was released. But it didn't last long. The terrible year of 1937 was approaching, and already in August he was returned to prison again. In Novosibirsk in January 1938, the death sentence was read to him. This is the answer to the question of how General Pepelyaev died.

However, he repeated the fate of millions in Russia. Historians and researchers will return more than once to tragic fate this great Russian officer. He knew ups and downs, but continued to love Russia and tried to help it to the best of his ability and understanding. General Pepelyaev is a fragment of the past and a symbol of a real Russian officer.

Reading some excerpts from his diary, one is involuntarily horrified by the suicidal melancholy that settled in his soul during the famous Yakut campaign. And one can only be amazed at how he found the strength to continue the fight with people and with himself.

By all indications, he was in the deepest depression. Pepelyaev tossed between the desire to shoot himself or to run wherever his eyes were looking. What is this? The onset of a serious illness as a result of living under stress for the last few years? Or the realization came that the Russia he knew had changed completely and irrevocably, and Pepelyaev could not save it. We can only guess. But surrendering to the Red Army without a fight leaves a disgusting feeling of shame and confirms the rule: war is not a place for romantics. This is soul-searing work, cruel and bloody, where there is no place for sentimentality and knightly scraping.

Civil War in Siberia

February 3rd, 2015

At the end of the Civil War, when the whites were already firmly pressed to the ocean, a group of several hundred desperate people went on an adventure in an attempt to turn the tide of history at its knees. They failed, but the duel between the Reds and the Whites in the unimaginably huge wastelands of Yakutia, even by Russian standards, remained one of the brightest stories in Russian history.

In 1922, the Reds gradually cleared the Far East, Uborevich was preparing for the last push to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. By this time, the bulk of the whites in the Far East had already been squeezed out to China, leaving either those who were most unlucky or those who were persistent on a particularly large scale. At this moment, General Dieterichs, who represented the remnants of the White Guard on DalVas, and his assistant Kulikovsky came up with the idea of ​​setting fire to northeastern Siberia. The plan envisaged a landing on the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk east of Yakutsk, a quick capture of the city and the creation there of a center for a new uprising against the Reds. Fortunately, envoys from the local population had already arrived from there, reporting their desire to rebel against the Reds. It was planned to march 800 km deep into the continent on off-road roads. For such an undertaking, volunteers were needed, and volunteers needed a commander. The “commandos” were found quickly, and the commander had no problem either.

Among other emigrants in northeastern China, in Harbin, lived General Anatoly Pepelyaev, the main character of our play. He was a young man, but had noticeable combat experience. Pepelyaev was a career military man; by the beginning of the First World War he was already the chief of reconnaissance of a regiment, and he fought off the entire war with honor. “Anna” for bravery, an honorary weapon, an officer’s “George”, “Vladimir” with swords - even by those standards, an impressive iconostasis. At the end of the war, when the commanders were elected, the soldiers asked him to join the battalion commanders. He finished the First World War as a lieutenant colonel, and during the Civil War he joined Kolchak’s army, and, as was the custom of that time, quickly rose in rank. In general, the Civil War is the time of generals under 30 years of age. Turkul, Manstein, Buzun... Here comes 27-year-old Pepelyaev. In 1920, due to a conflict with Ataman Semenov, to whom he was subordinate, Pepelyaev left with his wife and children for Harbin, where he lived for the second year. Dieterichs’s people easily found him and offered to take part in the “special operation.”

Reference: Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev (1891-1938) - Russian military leader. Participant in the First World War and the Civil War on the Eastern Front. White Guard. He distinguished himself by the capture of Perm on December 25, 1918 and the campaign against Yakutsk in 1922-1923. Siberian regionalist. Brother of Kolchak's Prime Minister Russian government Viktor Nikolaevich Pepelyaev.

In total, there were 730 people in the detachment, including as many as two generals and 11 colonels, all volunteers from the regions of the Far East and the Russian colonies of China that remained under white control. The Whites had a great shortage of weapons, so there were only two machine guns. There were plenty of rifles, but more than half of them were single-shot Berdankas, thanks for the fact that they weren’t fusees from the times of Peter the Great. There was not so little ammunition by Civilian standards, 250 rounds of ammunition and a dozen grenades per brother. The matter was complicated by the fact that it was a “one-time” ammunition, and no supplies were provided. There was no artillery, and it was not required; from the place of the proposed landing to Yakutsk it was necessary to travel more than 800 km through wild wastelands on foot (the expedition diary somehow mentions, for example, a swamp 8 km wide), simply no one would have pulled the guns.

This plan seems somewhat divorced from reality. Fight Yakutsk with a detachment of 700 kopecks of people. But the Reds had the same problem; armies of several hundred soldiers, often with rather sonorous names, rushed across vast spaces. Pepelyaev’s group, for example, was called “Tatar Strait Militia” for camouflage purposes.

There was little time and transport. They landed in Okhotsk and Ayan at the end of August. Ayan is a village on the seashore, a dozen and a half houses, several warehouses and a couple of “suburbs” of the same merits. By the way, in the brochure of Vishnevsky, one of the participants in the expedition, there is such an intriguing remark about this expedition: “The rain in Ayana is especially dangerous: it can be extremely heavy and, thanks to the force of the wind, breaks through the walls of buildings.” It’s hard to say what you mean by “breaks through walls,” but nature really wasn’t conducive to hiking. White partisans were waiting in Ayan and local residents, about a hundred people. The detachment was divided in two in order to collect white partisan units along the way. In Ayan, a people's gathering of the surrounding Tungus and local Russians was held, who motorized our partisans, providing three hundred deer. At this time, the second batch of troops was just about to take off from Vladivostok. Pepelyaev was already moving into the depths of the continent, but due to the lack of roads he walked slowly, with difficulty overcoming swamps and rivers. The rendezvous point for the white detachments was the village of Nelkan. Those who got there before others suffered from lack of food, eating horses. The ships with the second wave of landings arrived only in November. At the same time, the population collected transport, those very mentioned deer. By this time, the Whites in Vladivostok had already been completely defeated. Pepelyaev from the commander of either a partisan or sabotage detachment turned into the leader of the main military force of the whites. There was no one else behind me.

Along the way, detachments of white partisans operating in these areas were added. Colonel Reinhardt (one of the two battalion commanders) estimated their total strength at approximately 800 people. The partisans pretty much turned the local population against themselves, they fed from the same Yakuts and Tungus, in general, the population, according to the whites, treated the reds and whites in the style of the unforgettable phrase “the reds will come and rob, the whites will come and rob” and did not particularly adore either one or the other. Although a certain division of sympathies was noted: those who are poorer are for the Reds, those who are more prosperous are more likely to be for the Whites. The Red forces were estimated at approximately 3 thousand fighters in total.

We must pay tribute, the discipline was close to exemplary, there were no frostbites or stragglers, although the last detachment arrived in Nelkan in the winter under the snow, making marches even at minus thirty.

On December 20, the detachment set out for the village of Amga, the next stop before Yakutsk, 160 versts from the city. We walked and rode reindeer. I note that these regions are the coldest of all that exist in Russia. They approached Amga on the cold night of February 2, 1923 and attacked it from the march. During this final rush to Amga... I almost wrote “the thermometers showed”, the thermometers didn’t show a damn thing, because when it was minus forty-five outside, the mercury freezes. It was cold reading about it anyway. The White Walkers frantically took Amga at the bayonet, killing the small garrison.

The Reds formally had a certain numerical advantage at that time. But they were not gathered together, but acted in three separate detachments. Pepelyaev decided to destroy first the medium-sized detachment of Strode. It was a red partisan group of 400 people, with machine guns, but without cannons, weighed down by a convoy. Strode seemed like a good target.

Actually, who was it? Ivan Strods is actually Janis Strods, the son of a Latvian and a Polish woman, the protagonist of the red side of our story. He, like Pepelyaev, fought in the First World War. Just not a career officer, but a “mobilization” warrant officer. The ensign, I must say, was a dashing one, four “Georges”. In Civil, he was an anarchist, later he joined the Bolsheviks, led a partisan detachment, with which he went to meet Pepelyaev.

The white leader developed a plan for a surprise attack against Strode. Leaving Colonel Peters' one and a half hundred bayonets in Amga, he moved forward, preparing to accidentally fall on the Reds. This plan had thirty-four advantages and one disadvantage. His merits were that he was flawless, but his disadvantage was that he went head over heels.

Pepelyaev got a kick out of it human factor. Two soldiers, maddened by the cold, went to the village to warm up. The Reds were already there; these two, exhausted in a warm yurt, were captured. The plan was immediately revealed to Strode, and he feverishly began to prepare for battle. Pepelyaev, realizing that there was no surprise, struck with brute force and recaptured the convoy. But the brave Red Baltic citizen was not at a loss and did not lose heart. Strod settled into a winter hut under the poetic name Sasyl-Sysy. This, if I may say so, village consisted of several houses surrounded by a fence, as Vishnevsky writes, made of dung. There the Reds dug in and prepared for an all-round defense. It was February 13th. Until the 27th, Pepelyaev desperately stormed these three yurts. Strode bristled with machine guns and fought back. By the way, it seems that frozen manure was indeed widely used in field fortification. The Soviet newspaper writes that the Pepeliaevites tried to use something like a Wagenburg from a sleigh with frozen dung. So, most likely, a fortress made of dubious material really took place. Meanwhile, two other red detachments, Baikalova and Kurashev, united and amounted to 760 people with guns. Together they attacked Amga again. A detachment of 150 soldiers, left there by Pepelyaev, lost more than half of its people under cannon fire and was forced to retreat. Baikalov’s brother died in the battle, and this predetermined the sad fate of the captured officers. True, it must be said that the information about the death of prisoners comes from whites, so its reliability is difficult to verify.

That was the end. On March 3, the siege was lifted. It is difficult to say what it is like in terms of personal glory to be called the winner of the Battle of Sasyl-Sysy, but this success brought Strode the Order of the Red Banner and the laurels of the triumphant of the last siege of the Civil War.

The remnants of Pepelyaev’s detachment began to retreat to Ayan. The Yakuts, who at first cheerfully participated in the expedition, went home. As a result, Pepelyaev gathered everyone and ordered those who wanted to leave openly. Another two hundred people left the detachment, three quarters were Yakuts. Meanwhile, General Rakitin, the commander of the detachment retreating to Okhotsk, was planning to break through to the south by land. In this they promised to help him with the remnants of the white partisans, who had been here before Pepelyaev’s raid group and knew the area. The lack of roads also affected the Reds; a garrison had to be left in every shed, so they also did not advance rapidly. In addition, Pepelyaev fought rearguard battles, not allowing much pressure. At the same time, a small white outpost in Kamchatka was destroyed, fifty people with the indispensable general at their head died, the noose around the white detachments tightened. It must be said that the Kamchatka outpost ruined itself; the Reds were helped by the Yakuts, angered by the robberies. Kamchatka, according to the Whites, fell quickly and without much pressure from the Reds; if it had held out longer, perhaps Pepelyaev’s detachment would have been saved by at least the remnants.

In early June, Rakitin prepared for the siege of Okhotsk, but the city fell thanks to an uprising of workers within. Rakitin shot himself with a hunting rifle. The partisans retreated back to the taiga.

In mid-June 1923, after long ordeals, the remnants of Pepelyaev’s squad, 640 people, gathered in Ayan. The smaller part were paratroopers who landed here at the end of last summer, the larger part were Yakuts, partisans and the like. The Whites decided to leave by sea, for which it was necessary to build boats. However, the Reds were not going to give them time.

The Reds had an agent in Ayan, a very valuable one at that, a radiotelegraph operator. For this reason, they were aware of the whites’ preparations and were not going to allow a retreat. On June 15, troops landed 40 km from Ayan. Paint commander Vostretsov secretly concentrated near the town. On the night of the 17th, covered by fog, he crept into Ayan aka Freddy Krueger into the dream of an eighth-grader and captured the headquarters. Pepelyaev, wanting to prevent bloodshed, which had already become unnecessary, gave the order to his subordinates who had not yet been captured to lay down their arms.

It must be said that not everyone followed this order. Since Ayan was very small, some of the officers were in the neighboring villages. Colonel Stepanov gathered about a hundred soldiers, prepared for the campaign in a few hours and went into the forests, its end unknown. Another colonel, Leonov, at the head of a group of a dozen people, went north along the coast, and succeeded; he managed to contact Japanese fishermen, through them find a ship and go to the land of anime. Colonel Anders, who had previously defended Amga, also tried to break through, but in the end he and his men became hungry and decided that it was better to surrender than to eat belts and boots. A total of 356 people were captured. Thus ended the Civil War in the Far East.

Pepelyaev and the fighters of his squad were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Initially, the general was going to be shot, but at Kalinin’s suggestion he was pardoned. Apparently, in the Red camp they believed that there was a time to scatter stones and a time to collect them, they tried to return the whites to the USSR by military experts, and it was unnecessary to frighten them with executions. By the way, the characterization given to Pepelyaev by Vostretsov, who captivated him, is interesting.

“Dear comrade Solts.
In 1923, I liquidated the gang of General Pepelyaev in the Okhotsk - port Ayan area, and more than 400 people were captured, of which 2/3 were officers.
They were tried in 1923 in the city. Chita and were sentenced to different terms, and they are all in different houses of detention.
Having received a letter from one of the convicts, I decided to write to you briefly what General Pepelyaev is like.
1. His idea is petty-bourgeois, or rather Menshevik, although he considered himself non-party.
2. Very religious. He studied the literature on religion well, especially Renan.
3. Personal qualities: very honest, selfless; lived on an equal basis with other combat devotees (soldiers); their slogan is that all are brothers: brother general, brother soldier, etc. His colleagues have told me since 1911 that Pepelyaev does not know the taste of wine (I think this can be believed).
4. He had enormous authority among his subordinates: what Pepelyaev said - there was a law for his subordinates. Even in such difficult moments, like his defeat near the city of Yakutsk and his captivity in Ayan, his authority did not weaken. Example: a detachment of about 150 people was in 8 faiths. from the port of Ayan, and when he learned that the port of Ayan had been captured by the Reds, he decided to advance on the port of Ayan, and when halfway they were met by a messenger with an order from General Pepelyaev to surrender, they, having read this order, said: “Since the general orders, we must fulfill,” which is what they did, i.e., they surrendered without a fight.
I have this thought: isn’t it time to release him from prison? I think that he can do absolutely nothing for us now, but he can be used as a military expert (and he, in my opinion, is not bad). If we have such former enemies as General Slashchev, who outweighed our brother more than one hundred, and now works at Vystrel as a tactics teacher.
These are the thoughts that I had and expressed to you as the person in charge of this.
With communist greetings.
Commander of the 27th Omsk Infantry Division S. Vostretsov. (13.4.1928)"

Nevertheless, Pepelyaev spent 13 years in prison, although he was allowed some liberties, for example, correspondence with his wife. And in 1938 he fell under the rink of repression and was shot. Even earlier, in 1937, Strode was arrested and shot. Vostretsov, who finished off Pepelyaev’s detachment with paint, also did not end his life very happily; in 1929 he participated in the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway in one of the leading roles, and in 1932 he already committed suicide.

Actually, in Vladivostok, a military court sentenced Pepelyaev to execution, but he wrote a letter to Kalinin asking for clemency. The request was considered, and in January 1924 a trial was held in Chita, which sentenced Pepelyaev to 10 years in prison. Pepelyaev was supposed to serve his sentence in the Yaroslavl political prison. Pepelyaev spent the first two years in solitary confinement; in 1926 he was allowed to go to work. He worked as a carpenter, glazier and joiner. Pepelyaev was even allowed to correspond with his wife in Harbin.

Pepelyaev’s term ended in 1933, but back in 1932, at the request of the OGPU board, they decided to extend it for three years. In January 1936, he was unexpectedly transferred from the political isolation ward in Yaroslavl to the Butyrka prison in Moscow. The next day, Pepelyaev was transferred to an internal NKVD prison. On the same day, he was summoned for questioning by the head of the Special Department of the NKVD, Mark Gai. Then he was again placed in Butyrka prison. On June 4, 1936, Pepelyaev was summoned again to Guy, who read him the release order. On June 6, Anatoly Nikolaevich was released.

The NKVD settled Pepelyaev in Voronezh, where he got a job as a carpenter. There is an opinion that Pepelyaev was released for the purpose of organizing a dummy society, like the Industrial Party.

In August 1937, Pepelyaev was arrested a second time and taken to Novosibirsk, where he was charged with creating a counter-revolutionary organization. On January 14, 1938, the Troika of the NKVD in the Novosibirsk region was sentenced to capital punishment. The sentence was carried out on January 14, 1938 in the prison of the city of Novosibirsk. He was buried in the prison yard.

On January 14, 1938, a participant was shot in Novosibirsk civil war, famous White Guard Anatoly Pepelyaev. He is one of the few military leaders of the White movement who, albeit posthumously, was rehabilitated by the Soviet government. However, the life of General Pepelyaev is also rich in stories other than this. "RG" collected Interesting Facts from the biography of the legendary officer.

1. Anatoly Pepelyaev was born on July 15, 1891 in Tomsk, in the family of a hereditary nobleman and lieutenant general of the tsarist army Nikolai Pepelyaev and the daughter of a merchant Claudia Nekrasova. The famous White Guard had two sisters and five brothers, two of whom also left their mark on history. So Arkady Pepelyaev, during the First World War, led the sanitary train of the Southwestern Front, and had four orders - two of St. Stanislav and two of St. Anne. After the Civil War, Arkady Nikolaevich continued to practice as an otolaryngologist. His fame as an excellent doctor was in Omsk; both ardent supporters and equally ardent opponents of Soviet power went to him for treatment. However, on January 23, 1941, he was arrested and died on May 24, 1946 in a camp in the city of Mariinsk. Another brother, Viktor Pepelyaev, became a political figure and associate of Kolchak during the civil war, and was arrested with him and executed on February 7, 1920.

2. Anatoly Pepelyaev went to the front of the First World War as a lieutenant in the 42nd Siberian Rifle Regiment, and met the revolution as a lieutenant colonel. For military valor he was awarded six orders, including the 4th degree Order of St. George and the Arms of St. George. Pepelyaev's popularity among the lower ranks was enormous. After the October Revolution, the council of soldiers' deputies of the battalion, which by that time was commanded by Pepelyaev, elected him as its commander. However, the officer did not accept the Brest-Litovsk Peace and left for Tomsk, where he led the fight against the Bolsheviks.

3. The White Guards under the command of Pepelyaev took Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), Krasnoyarsk, Verkhneudinsk and Chita. During this campaign, Pepelyaev was promoted to major general, and became the youngest general in Siberia - he was 27 years old. On December 24, 1918, Pepelyaev’s troops occupied Perm, abandoned by the Bolsheviks, capturing about 20 thousand Red Army soldiers, all of whom were sent home by order of Pepelyaev. Due to the fact that the liberation of Perm coincided with the 128th anniversary of the capture of the fortress by Izmail Suvorov, the soldiers nicknamed Anatoly Nikolaevich “Siberian Suvorov”.

4. During the civil war, Pepelyaev's fame was enormous. In the regiments and divisions of Kolchak’s Northern Group of Forces, it thundered: “We will pave the way for our beloved leader to Vyatka, turn the enemy hordes into corpses. We are a mighty army, and the enemy cannot hold back the Pepelyaev Northern Group.” However, it was not possible to take Vyatka and connect with the troops of General Miller. The retreat of all Kolchak’s troops began, which turned into a flight. The First Siberian Army of General Pepelyaev died entirely in the area between Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, covering the retreat to Irkutsk and further, beyond Lake Baikal, of two other armies - Kappel and Woitsekhovsky. General Pepelyaev, who fell ill with typhus, escaped captivity and recovered.

6. In Vladivostok, a military court sentenced Pepelyaev to death, but he wrote a letter to Kalinin asking for clemency. The request was considered, and in January 1924 a trial was held in Chita, which sentenced Pepelyaev to ten years in prison. The White Guard general spent the first two years in solitary confinement in the Yaroslavl political detention center. Then he was allowed to work as a carpenter, glazier and joiner, and even correspond with his wife in Harbin. Pepelyaev’s term ended in 1933, but back in ’32 it was extended for three years. After his release, Anatoly Nikolaevich was settled in Voronezh, where he got a job as a carpenter. In August 1937, Pepelyaev was arrested a second time and taken to Novosibirsk, where he was charged with creating a counter-revolutionary organization, and on January 14, 1938 he was shot. It is curious that 20 days later the winner of Pepelyaev in the Yakut taiga, Vitebsk Latvian Jan Strod, was shot. He, like his opponent, was a participant in the First World War, a Knight of St. George, who was also awarded four Orders of the Red Banner.

7. On October 20, 1989, the prosecutor's office of the Novosibirsk region rehabilitated the White Guard general Anatoly Pepelyaev. On July 15, 2011 in Tomsk at the city cemetery "Baktin" the grand opening of the monument to Lieutenant General Nikolai Pepelyaev and his son General Anatoly Pepelyaev took place.